Global Payments Reportedly Plans $699 Merchant Fee

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Global Payments Reportedly Plans $699 Merchant Fee
Global Payments Reportedly Plans $699 Merchant Fee
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Global Payments is reportedly adding a $699 annual fee to merchant accounts, with the first charge landing on December statements.

If your store runs card payments through a Global Payments brand like Heartland, TSYS, EVO or Worldpay, this is a fixed cost that shows up whether you sell one order or a thousand. At Ecommerce Paradise we work with high-ticket store owners. Many of them keep a dedicated merchant account so a $4,000 order doesn’t trip a payout hold, and those are exactly the accounts that get fee letters like this one. The fee itself is small. The pattern behind it is not, and some merchants have a limited window to leave without a penalty.

This applies whether you run a mature store or are still learning how high-ticket dropshipping works. Here’s what was reported, why Global Payments is squeezing merchant pricing right now, what it costs a store doing real volume, and the statement audit I’d run this week. If you’re still deciding which processor belongs behind a new store, start with my guide on how to choose payment methods for a new store.

Shopping for a new processor? Clean up your chargeback numbers first, because every underwriter will ask for them. ClearSale reviews risky orders before you ship them, so fewer fraud disputes land on your record while you switch. Protect your orders with ClearSale →

Global Payments’ $699 Annual Fee: What Merchants Are Being Told

Payments Dive reported on Nov. 9, 2026 that Global Payments is seeking to add a $699 annual fee for merchant clients starting next month. The report credits Matt Rej, a partner at Merchant Cost Consulting, who posted about the fee on LinkedIn. Per Rej, the first charge appears on merchant statements in December.

Rej said the fee comes “on top of the other increases we’ve already seen from Worldpay this year,” according to Payments Dive. The merchant letter he shared justified the charge this way: “Government and industry regulations have had a significant impact on system requirements.” Global Payments did not respond to Payments Dive’s request for comment.

The $699 number is not the only one circulating. Sekure Merchants, a payments broker, published a notice breakdown on Oct. 29, 2026 describing a $755 “Annual System Enhancement Fee” on October 2026 statements. Sekure says the same notice added a 35-cent fee each time a merchant closes out a batch, starting Nov. 1, 2026.

Sekure’s math puts the batch fee at about $128 a year for a business that closes out daily and about $91 for five days a week. Combined with the annual fee, it estimates roughly $880 a year for a daily-batch merchant. Sekure says the fees apply across Heartland, EVO, TSYS and Worldpay, all of which Global Payments now owns.

The two sources do not agree on the amount, and neither one is a Global Payments statement. Fee letters in this industry often vary by brand, contract and sales channel, so the honest read is that different merchant groups appear to be getting different numbers. Your own statement is the only document that tells you which one applies to you.

The exit clause in the notice

The most useful detail in Sekure’s write-up is the escape hatch. Per Sekure, Global’s notice tells merchants who object that they may “terminate your agreement without penalty” by giving written notice under their agreement. Sekure says that notice must arrive within 90 days of the invoice showing the $755 charge, which closes for most merchants between late January and early February 2027.

That matters because early termination fees are where processor contracts usually bite. A merchant who wants out normally pays a fee or liquidated damages to leave before the term ends. A fee change notice that waives that penalty is, in practice, a free window to shop the account.

This is the second fee wave of 2026

Merchants were already reporting increases earlier in the year. A Feb. 24, 2026 press release from MerchantService.com, a competing payments firm, said Global Payments customers reported a newly introduced $499 annual fee and rate increases of 20 to 300 basis points in January and February 2026. That release comes from a competitor looking for switchers, so treat the range as merchant reports rather than verified pricing.

Put the three reports side by side and the direction is consistent. A $499 annual fee early in the year, then a $699 or $755 annual fee in the fall, plus a per-batch charge and reported rate bumps. None of those charges buy the merchant a new feature, according to Sekure.

Worldpay Deal, $22B of Debt and a Buyout Bid Behind the New Fees

The timing tracks Global Payments’ own year. The company closed its purchase of Worldpay from GTCR and FIS in January 2026, and in its completion announcement it said the combined business serves more than 6 million merchant locations and processes $3.7 trillion in payment volume across more than 175 countries. CEO Cameron Bready said combining with Worldpay “expands our capabilities and increases our geographic reach.”

Payments Dive put the Worldpay price at $24.25 billion. Deals that size get paid for with cost cuts and pricing, and Global Payments has been open about the first part. In its third-quarter 2026 results, the company raised its target for annual Worldpay cost savings to $650 million, according to 24/7 Wall St.’s earnings recap.

Revenue came in at $3.31 billion for the quarter against a $3.18 billion analyst estimate, per the same recap. Reported revenue rose roughly 65% from a year earlier because of the acquisition. Strip out the deal and divestitures and normalized adjusted net revenue grew just over 4%, and the company reaffirmed 2026 adjusted EPS guidance of $13.60 to $13.80.

That 4% organic number is the pressure point. Payments Dive notes that Global Payments’ own Q3 release acknowledged “increased competition in the markets in which we operate.” Baird Equity Research analysts wrote, per Payments Dive, that “pricing pressure is a constant threat, and new fintechs have become competitive threats as well.”

The buyout talks

The Financial Times reported on Oct. 30, 2026 that private equity firms Clayton, Dubilier & Rice and GTCR were weighing a take-private bid, and Reuters confirmed the approach the same day, according to Tech Times’ summary of the reports. The implied enterprise value is about $40 billion, made up of roughly $25.6 billion in market value plus about $17 billion in net debt. Gross debt sits near $22 billion.

Global Payments shares rose more than 11% to $96.84 on the news, per Tech Times. No formal offer had been made public as of Nov. 1, and all three companies declined to comment. William Blair analysts called the bid credible but put the odds of a deal “well below 50 percent,” citing the debt load.

The counterpoint

Two fair points cut the other way. First, a $699 or $755 annual fee is small next to processing costs for most merchants doing real volume, and Payments Dive’s report does not say it applies to small merchants specifically. Second, the fee letter cites real compliance costs, and card network and security requirements do change. Nothing reported so far shows the fee is unlawful or hidden. It was disclosed by notice.

The heat around processor fees is real, though. In late October the FTC and eight states sued Toast over what they called hidden fees, which I covered in my breakdown of the FTC’s Toast lawsuit. Different company, different allegations, but regulators are clearly reading merchant fee schedules more closely than they were two years ago. A few days later, I covered Riverside Payments settling an FTC fee case for $600,000.

What a $699 Fee and Rate Hikes Cost a High-Ticket Store

My read is that the annual fee is the least important number in this story. The rate increases are the real money, and the fee letter is the moment to catch them.

Here is hypothetical math for a typical high-ticket store. Say you average $3,000 per order and sell 15 orders a month. That is $45,000 a month, or $540,000 a year, in card volume. A $699 annual fee works out to about 0.13% of that volume. Annoying, not fatal.

Now apply the reported rate bumps to the same hypothetical store. A 20 basis point increase on $540,000 is $1,080 a year. A 50 basis point increase is $2,700. At the top of the reported range, 300 basis points, it would be $16,200, which is real margin on a business model where net profit often runs 7% to 10%. Most merchants won’t see the top of that range, but almost nobody checks, and that is how these increases stick.

High-ticket stores feel this more than most for one reason: we tend to sit on dedicated merchant accounts. Big tickets and low order counts look strange to the risk models at aggregators like Stripe and PayPal, which I compared in my Stripe vs PayPal breakdown on fees and holds. So a lot of serious stores add a traditional merchant account through a gateway, and a lot of those accounts sit on Global Payments rails without the owner realizing it.

Three scenarios and what I’d do in each

If your statement shows only the annual fee and your effective rate hasn’t moved, I’d note it and keep the account. Switching processors on a working high-ticket store carries its own risk, and a $700 fee isn’t worth a new rolling reserve.

If your effective rate rose 25 basis points or more this year, I’d get two competing quotes before the termination window closes. On $540,000 of volume that is $1,350 a year or more, and the notice gives you a penalty-free exit you won’t get again. If cash gets tight during the switch, my guide on financing growth without hurting cash flow covers the bridge options.

If you’re on Shopify with Shopify Payments as your only processor, this specific fee doesn’t touch you. The lesson still does. One processor is one point of failure, and I laid out the backup setup in why your payment processor is a single point of failure.

Switching has a cost too

New processors underwrite you from scratch. They will ask for processing statements, look at your chargeback ratio and may hold a reserve on big tickets. A clean dispute history is your best negotiating chip, and my guide to chargeback prevention for high-ticket stores covers the habits that keep it clean.

Fees also hit cash flow, not just margin. If your banking runs through Mercury, set up a separate account for processor deposits so you can see fees and reserves clearly each month. My walkthrough on opening a Mercury account covers the setup.

Processor shopping, supplier terms, ad spend and customer service all land on the owner at once, and that is where most stores stall. If you’d rather have my team handle the build and the operating details from the start, that is what our turnkey done-for-you store service is for.

Want a high-ticket store built with the payment stack, suppliers and ads set up right the first time? See the turnkey done-for-you service →

Audit Your Merchant Statement Before the 90-Day Window Closes

What I’d do this week, in this order:

  1. Find out who actually processes your cards. Pull your October and November merchant statements and look at the processor name in the header and fine print. Heartland, TSYS, EVO and Worldpay are all Global Payments brands per Sekure, even if your sales rep works for a smaller reseller.
  2. Search the statement for the new line items. Look for an annual fee, a “system enhancement” charge and a per-batch fee. Then divide total fees by total volume to get your effective rate, and compare it to the same month last year. If your books sync from Shopify, my Shopify QuickBooks integration guide shows where processor fees land.
  3. Put the termination deadline on your calendar. Per Sekure, objecting merchants have 90 days from the invoice showing the new fee to give written notice. Check your own agreement for the notice address and method, and send it in writing if you decide to leave. I’m not a lawyer, so have yours read the contract if the account is large.
  4. Get two competing quotes with your real numbers. Send each processor three months of statements and ask for an interchange-plus quote, the reserve policy for orders over $2,500 and the early termination terms in writing. A rate that looks lower with a 10% rolling reserve can cost you more in tied-up cash.
  5. Clean up chargeback risk before you apply. Tools like ClearSale screen high-dollar orders before they ship, which protects the ratio new underwriters will judge you on. My chargeback reason codes guide shows which disputes count against you.
  6. Book the fees correctly. Record processor fees as their own expense line in QuickBooks so you can see the trend each month instead of netting them out of sales. If you want an outside look at your whole setup, book a discovery call with me.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Global Payments really charging a $699 annual fee?
Payments Dive reported on Nov. 9, 2026 that Global Payments is seeking to add a $699 annual fee for merchant clients, with the first charge in December, citing Merchant Cost Consulting’s Matt Rej. Global Payments did not comment, and Sekure Merchants reported a $755 version on October statements, so the amount appears to vary by merchant.

Which processors are owned by Global Payments?
Sekure Merchants lists Heartland, EVO, TSYS and Worldpay as Global Payments brands applying the new fees. Many merchant accounts are sold through independent resellers, so check the processor named on your statement rather than the company that signed you up.

Can I cancel my merchant account without an early termination fee?
According to Sekure, the fee notice says objecting merchants may terminate without penalty by giving written notice within 90 days of the invoice showing the new fee. Confirm the exact terms in your own agreement before you act.

Does this affect Shopify Payments?
No report ties the fee to Shopify Payments. It applies to merchant accounts on Global Payments rails, which some stores run alongside Shopify through a separate gateway.

What is a batch fee?
It is a charge each time your card sales for the day are closed out and sent for settlement. Sekure says Global Payments added 35 cents per batch from Nov. 1, 2026, which is about $128 a year for a store that settles daily.

Should a new high-ticket store use a merchant account or Shopify Payments?
Most new stores start on Shopify Payments for simplicity and add a dedicated merchant account once order values and volume justify it. Pick your niche first with my free high-ticket niches list, since average order value drives the processor decision.

Can I pay processing fees with a business credit card for points?
Processors usually deduct fees straight from your deposits, so you can’t put them on a card. You can earn on ad spend and software, and I keep my current business credit card picks updated for that. Keep it on a business card, not a personal one, for the reasons in my business vs personal card guide.

Want to compare processor notes with other store owners and get my input directly? Start with the 7-day free trial of the Ecommerce Paradise Academy community. Join the Skool community →

Fee letters are easy to ignore because they look like legal boilerplate. This one comes with a deadline, so give it ten minutes before the holidays eat your calendar.

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